Suntrust wins Lime Rock finale, but Pruett and Rojas take the title

September 28, 2012

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It was a miserable day for the Ganassi Racing BMW Riley of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, as the pair could manage only a seventh-place finish in the Rolex at Lime Rock season finale for the Grand-Am series in their damaged car. But it was enough to give the team its sixth championship, and its third straight.

This one was particularly tough, Pruett said, in part because the BMW Riley seldom seemed to match the overall performance of the new-for-2012 Chevrolet Corvette, which swept the podium at Lime Rock. “It was a difficult, challenging season for us,” Pruett said. “we had to dig deep because sometimes we tried to take a fifth- or sixth-place car and put it on the podium.” Pruett said he hope Grand Am rulemakers take a hard look at parity during the off-season, especially engine output and the amount of downforce the Corvettes have on short tracks like the 1.5-mile Lime Rock.

That said, it was indeed Chevrolet's day, as the Corvettes of Suntrust Racing, Spirit of Daytona Racing and Gainsco Racing took, in that order, first, second and third in the Daytona Prototype category, and the Chevrolet Camaro of Stevenson Motorsports won the GT class.

No other cars were really much of a challenge in the DP class than the top three. The Spirit of Daytona car of Richard Westbrook and Antonio Garcia took the pole, followed by the Ganassi car which was qualified by Pruett, a job he usually leaves to Rojas, but Rojas has admitted that Lime Rock isn't his favorite venue. The Gainsco car of Jon Fogarty and Alex Gurney qualified third, then the Suntrust car of Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor.

The lead was swapped repeatedly more because of pit stops than on-track passing, but the Suntrust Corvette appeared the most consistently dominant, not surprising because Angelelli and Taylor have had a lot of success at Lime Rock. The team made a lot of changes after qualifying, “and I hoped we might have a podium car,” Taylor said. “But after I saw how fast Max was after the first restart, I thought we might have a chance to win.”

It was disappointing for Fogarty and Gurney to come so close and not close the deal, because the team went winless all season. “It wasn't for lack of effort,” Fogarty said, “but we were just never able to put it together.”

The GT championship had already been locked up by Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal in their AIM Autosport Ferrari, which was good because the team finished a dismal 18th in the 26-car field. The race came down to a late battle between the Camaro of Robin Liddell and John Edwards, with Liddell and Magnus Porsche driver Andy Lally dicing for the lead. But the Porsche faded to 16th after a late pit stop, leaving the GT victory to the Stevenson car, followed by the Audi A8 of Jim Norman and Dion von Molte, then the Ferrari of Alessandro Balzan and Johannes van Overbeek.

Earlier in the day, there was controversy regarding the season championship in the Continental Tire Challenge GS class after the race was won by the Rum Bum Porsche of Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi. The win gave the championship to Plumb, but Grand Am revoked the points Plumb was awarded, because he was entered in two separate cars, but did not start the race in either one. Had started on one of the two cars, the points would have counted. The team has protested the call. If it isn't upheld, the championship goes to David Epringham and John Farano of BGB Motorsports.

Also, Grand Am announced its 2013 schedule – Kansas Speedway, Road Atlanta and Circuit of the Americas in Texas have been added, and Homestead, New Jersey, Montreal and one of the two races at Watkins Glen are gone. Lime Rock will again close the season.